SYMPOSIUM PRESENTATION: ABSTRACT SUBMISSION FORM (A)
Symposia are organized by two co-convenors and consist of 4-5 papers. One of the co-convenors may be the discussant
the other one functioning as the chairperson. The chair may present one of the papers. Co-convenors must be from two
different countries. Participants should represent at least two different countries.
One of the co-convenors should: (a) collect the individual abstracts, which should not exceed 200 words each; (b) send
to the Scientific Committee the title and the abstract of the symposium, and (c) provide names and addresses of
symposium participants as well as titles and abstracts of the symposium papers.
XIIth European Conference on Developmental Psychology Submission
Deadline: December 1, 2004
Title of the Symposium (block letters): THE DEVELOPMENT AND INFLUENCE OF EFFORTFUL
CONTROL: ACROSS AGE, CULTURE AND LANGUAGE
Convenor: James B. Victor, Hampton University, USA, & Carmen Gonzalez, University of Murcia,
Spain
Discussant: Mary Rothbart, University of Oregon, USA
Max. 200 words. Font: Times New Roman, 12 points. Please send your abstract by e-mail or regular mail.
Title of the Symposium
THE DEVELOPMENT AND INFLUENCE OF EFFORTFUL CONTROL: ACROSS AGE, CULTURE
AND LANGUAGE
SYMPOSIUM PRESENTATION
This symposium presents a set of five papers addressing: (a) the development of effortful
control; and (b) the influence of effortful control on language development, child personality,
and school performance. The first paper examines the role of temperament in the
development of effortful control from infancy to preschool and compares Russian and USA
children. The second paper tests the hypothesis that attention at 12, 18, and 24 months predict
individual differences in effortful control at 5 and 11 years in samples of Spanish children.
The third study examines how executive attention and effortful control relate to language
development in 4 and 5 year old USA children. The fourth paper examines the role of
temperament self regulatory variables in shaping the traits of child personality across
ethnicity (European American and African American) and culture/language (Spanish
Speaking American) children ages 3 to 12 years. The final paper examines how effortful
control predicts academic achievement in American children as they move into the
adolescent years in grades 6, 7, and 8 and followed one year later. The papers will be
discussed in terms of the role of temperament and effortful control in learning and behavior.
SYMPOSIUM PAPER: ABSTRACT SUBMISSION FORM (A)
XIIth European Conference on
Developmental Psychology
Symposium Paper
Title of the Symposium (block letters): THE DEVELOPMENT AND INFLUENCE OF EFFORTFUL
CONTROL: ACROSS AGE, CULTURE AND LANGUAGE
Convenor: James B. Victor, Hampton University, USA, & Carmen Gonzalez, University of Murcia,
Spain
Discussant: Mary Rothbart, University of Oregon, USA
Max. 200 words. Font: Times New Roman, 12 points. Please send your abstract by e-mail.
Title of Symposium Paper: A Cross-Cultural Study of Infant Temperament: Explaining
Preschool Effortful Control.
Name(s): Masha Gartstein, Washington State University, USA*; Helena Slobodskaya, &
Gennadij Knyazev, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Russia;
Brian Hunter, MS, Washington State University, USA
Address of Institution(s): *Washington State University, Pullman, WA, 99164-4820, USA
Tel: 509 - 335-4651
Fax:
E-mail: gartsma@wsu.edu
Effortful Control (EC) has been conceptualized as a dimension of temperament incorporating
characteristics related to self-regulation (i.e., voluntary attention, inhibitory control) and
associated with the development of executive attention skills. Whereas a great deal of
research has focused on documenting the development of EC, there has been little systematic
study of early precursors of EC. The present study was designed to examine infant
temperament characteristics as potential predictors of EC in preschool across two countries:
Russia and U.S.A. Specifically, contributions of Negative Emotionality (NE),
Surgency/Positive Affectivity (SPA), and Orienting/Regulatory Capacity (ORC) measured in
the first year of life were expected to explain Effortful Control in the preschool period.
Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted separately for U.S and Russian
samples. Background characteristics were entered first, followed by temperament factors
assessed during the preschool follow-up and infant temperament factors. For the U.S. sample,
preschool NE (Beta=-.24; p<.01), infant SPA (Beta=.43; p<.01) and ORC (Beta=.25; p<.01)
explained significant amounts of EC variance, whereas infant ORC (Beta=.35; p<.01) was
the single significant predictor of preschool EC in the Russian sample. Results of this study
support the importance of early appearing regulation capacity in contributing to the
development of EC.
SYMPOSIUM PAPER: ABSTRACT SUBMISSION FORM (A)
XIIth European Conference on
Developmental Psychology
Symposium Paper
Title of the Symposium (block letters): THE DEVELOPMENT AND INFLUENCE OF EFFORTFUL
CONTROL: FROM INFANCY TO ADOLESCENCE
Convenor: James B. Victor, Hampton University, USA, & Carmen Gonzalez, University of Murcia,
Spain
Discussant: Mary Rothbart, University of Oregon, USA
Max. 200 words. Font: Times New Roman, 12 points. Please send your abstract by e-mail.
Title of Symposium Paper: Executive attention in infancy supports the development of
Effortful Control through childhood
Name(s): Jose Antonio Carranza, Carmen González, & Angelines Vilar
Address of Institution(s): University of Murcia, Spain
Tel:
Fax:
E-mail: cgonzales@um.es
Late in the first year of life, the maturation of the Anterior Attentional Network leads to the
emergence of an executive function, linked to the goal-oriented, planned behavior, and
permitting the child to engage and persist for longer in playing with objects. It has been
proposed that this executive attention supports Effortful Control (Rothbart & Posner, 1992),
that is, the ability to inhibit a dominant response to perform a subdominant response. This
skill is considered necessary to regulate one’s behavior in response to the cognitive,
emotional and social demands of specific situations. If attention span at the first birthday is
controlled by the executive attentional network, then, individual differences in effortful
control in childhood can be predicted from so early in infancy. To test this hypothesis, we
assessed a group of children from infancy through childhood, and administered temperament
questionnaires to parents at different ages. As expected, Attention/persistence at 12, 18, and
24 months predicted individual differences in Effortful Control dimensions at 5 and 11 years
old. Also, higher scores in Attention/persistence at 12, 18, and 24 were consistently
associated with a lower negative emotionality at 5 and 11 years, supporting the role of the
executive attentional network in emotion regulation.
XIIth European Conference on
Developmental Psychology
Symposium Paper
Title of the Symposium (block letters): THE DEVELOPMENT AND INFLUENCE OF EFFORTFUL
CONTROL: FROM INFANCY TO ADOLESCENCE
Convenor: James B. Victor, Hampton University, USA, & Carmen Gonzalez, University of Murcia,
Spain
Discussant: Mary Rothbart, University of Oregon, USA
Max. 200 words. Font: Times New Roman, 12 points. Please send your abstract by e-mail.
Title of Symposium Paper: Effortful Control Dimensions, Executive Attention, and
Language Development: Relationships in Early Childhood for Diverse Children
Name(s): Evelyn Reed-Victor, Virginia Commonwealth University*; Lynn E. Pelco, College
of William & Mary; and Brittany Myatt, Hampton University, USA
*Address of Institution(s): *Virginia Commonwealth University, PO Box 842020,
Richmond, VA 23284-2020
Tel: 804-827-2653
Fax: 804-828-1326
E-mail: ereedvic@vcu.edu
Self-regulation and language development are important for young children’s school
adjustment and achievement (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000). This study examines how
dimensions of effortful control and executive attention relate to language development in 4-5
year old children (N=100). Parents rate child temperament and personality using the Child
Temperament Personality Questionnaire (Victor, Rothbart, & Baker, 2001), which includes
personality factors of Internalizing Negative Affectivity, Sociable Extraversion, Unsocialized
Stimulation Seeking, Openness to Experience, and Conscientiousness, as well as Effortful
Control scales of Attention Focusing, Inhibitory Control, Perceptual Sensitivity, and Falling
Reactivity. Children’s Executive Attention is measured with the Attention Networks Test
(Fan, McCandliss, Sommer, Raz & Posner, 2002; Posner, 2000), computer-based stroop
tasks which measure orienting, vigilance, and executive networks. Language development is
measured with the Individual Growth & Development Indicators (McConnell, Priest, Davis,
& McEvoy, 2002) of vocabulary development and phonological awareness (rhyming and
alliteration), through picture naming and matching in specified time limits. Parent-rated
Effortful Control and child ANT performance contribute significantly to personality
dimensions that are important in school adjustment and achievement. Further, Effortful
Control dimensions, Inhibitory Control and Attention Focusing, are significantly related to
vocabulary skills, and ANT interference scores are significantly related to vocabulary and
phonological awareness.
XIIth European Conference on
Developmental Psychology
Symposium Paper
Title of the Symposium (block letters): THE DEVELOPMENT AND INFLUENCE OF EFFORTFUL
CONTROL: FROM INFANCY TO ADOLESCENCE
Convenor: James B. Victor, Hampton University, USA, & Carmen Gonzalez, University of Murcia,
Spain
Discussant: Mary Rothbart, University of Oregon, USA
Max. 200 words. Font: Times New Roman, 12 points. Please send your abstract by e-mail.
Title of Symposium Paper: The Role of Temperament Self-regulatory Variables in Shaping
Child Personality: Across Ethnicity and Language
Name(s): James B. Victor, Hampton University*; Fatimah Rashad, Hampton University; &
Angelines Vilar, University of Murcia.
Address of Institution(s): *Hampton University, Hampton, VA 23668
Tel: 757-727-5529
Fax: 757-727-5131
E-mail:
james.victor@hamptonu.ecu
This paper examines the role of temperament self regulatory variables (attentional focusing,
Inhibitory control, perceptual sensitivity, and soothability) in shaping child personality traits
(Internalizing Negative Affectivity, Sociable Extraversion, Unsocialized Stimulation
Seeking, Conscientiousness, and Openness to Experience). Parents of children 3 to 12 years
old rated their children on the Child Temperament and Personality Questionnaire (CTPQ).
The samples consist of European American children (N = 487); African American children
(N = 298); and Spanish Speaking American children (N = 198). The self regulatory
dimensions were regressed against the personality factors of CTPQ. Soothability was related
negatively to Internalizing Negative Affectivity (INA), less predictably to Sociable
Extraversion, and to Unsocialized Stimulation Seeking (USS). Perceptual Sensitivity was
strongly related to Openness to Experience. Attention Focusing and Inhibitory Control were
related strongly to Conscientiousness and at lower levels to Openness. Inhibitory control was
strongly related to Unsocialized Stimulation Seeking. The general patterns for broad traits
across ethnicity are remarkably similar; however several interesting subscale differences will
be discussed.
XIIth European Conference on
Developmental Psychology
Symposium Paper
Title of the Symposium (block letters): THE DEVELOPMENT AND INFLUENCE OF EFFORTFUL
CONTROL: FROM INFANCY TO ADOLESCENCE
Convenor: James B. Victor, Hampton University, USA, & Carmen Gonzalez, University of Murcia,
Spain
Discussant: Mary Rothbart, University of Oregon, USA
Max. 200 words. Font: Times New Roman, 12 points. Please send your abstract by e-mail.
Title of Symposium Paper: Effortful Control Predictive Ability: Adolescent School
Performance
Name(s): Spencer Baker, Hampton University
Address of Institution(s): Hampton University, Hampton, VA 23668
Tel: 757-727-5128
Fax: 757-727-5131
E-mail:
spencer.baker@hamptonu.edu
Individual differences in Effortful Control have been discussed as having important
consequences for developing personality and associated with approach, anxiety,
conscientiousness, and agreeableness (Ahadi & Rothbart, 1994). Implications of the
attentional mechanisms underlying Effortful Control has been shown for concurrent social
development in toddlers (Kochanska, Murray, & Harlan, 2000) and stability over time
(Rothbart, Ellis, Rueda, & Posner, 2003). Recent studies have shown relationships between
Effortful Control, conscientiousness, and agreeableness, in adolescent academic adjustment
(Hair & Graziano, 2003) and academic performance (Baker, 2004). Data will be presented
from two adolescent samples, first showing the relationship between Effortful Control and
intelligence as measured by a norm-referenced standardized test, Stanford 9 TA. The second
study, will present data regarding the stability and change over one year for Effortful Control
and how Effortful Control predicts academic achievement as measured by grade point
average The Child Temperament and Personality Questionnaire (CTPQ), self report was used
in both studies (N=300) children in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. Discussion will include how
Effortful Control predicts adolescent academic achievement over time and how Effortful
Control may be the foundation for both conscientiousness and agreeableness.